Monster Integration

A day and sixteen hours later, the bubbling tar cloud is coming to an end.

It had shrunk so much that now it covered the area, a little bigger than my hand. As it had been, getting consumed by Nero and Ashlyn.

I am currently tired, physically more than mentally. That I am sweating from every part of my body.

Digging is difficult, even for me. Especially when I am trying to dig the soil previously covered by the bubbling tar fog.

About twenty hours ago, I noticed that the bubbling tar cloud-occupied soil was different. I took a sample and tested it immediately and was shocked by what I found.

Since then, I am digging it into the soul. Using my sword in creative ways, I had never thought I would use.

As I had said, this soil is not easy to dig, and it goes quite deeper. About seven to nine meters deeper. I am taking it all. This soil is an absolute treasure, better than anything I have got in this ruin.

Even better than the Earth-Sovereign class ink, I had stolen.

It will be useful in many things. The most basic being used in the breakthrough and to increase the quality of the soul in the core tremendously.

It will also help in upgrading the breakthrough formation.

I have to dig a huge part and dig as it shrunk. Now, only a column in the hole remains, where the bubbling tar cloud envelops Nero and Ashlyn.

I don't know the exact name of the soil, as possess the qualities of many powerful souls. So, I am calling it the bubbling soil, till I find its real name. Which I am sure I will do on the upper floor of the library.

Digging the soul is not the only thing I am doing. I am also harvesting the surrounding resources in the garden.

Leaving them would be a waste.

I have given control of my energy strings to my clone, and it is a fantastic job harvesting them. Better than I would ever do.

Forty minutes passed, and Nero and Ashlyn had absorbed all the bubbling tar cloud.

"Father, this is for you," said Nero sleepily, and handed me a blob.

It is a size of an apple; it did not have color, and it's in a state of continuous change. Just like the nine-color matter.

I only looked at it for a moment before sending it back to my core. When I turned to Nero again, I saw him sleeping, just like Ashlyn beside him, and it couldn't turn my expression bad.

I controlled my emotions and quickly sliced off the column from the base with my sword and put it back into my storage, along with sleeping Nero and Ashlyn.

As I did, I turned back toward the garden, as it was time to leave.

I was hoping Nero would guide me out of this place as he brought me here, but it will not happen.

Now, I am on my own, and thankfully; I had not been just sitting. I had investigated, especially, the route through which I had entered this place and now, I am going to exit through it.

I have checked it and found it the safest of all.

Even in his excitement, yesterday, Nero had chosen the safest road to here, and I did not waste any time moving toward there.

I jumped out of the hole and walked the way; I had come. I am a little tired and would have liked to wait if it had been possible, but it is not.

These plants feared the bubbling tar cloud, whatever that it is, but now it is gone. They might move at it. So, I will need to get out of there before that happens.

My steps are steady and fast, I am looking everywhere and could see the danger. It is quite a regret that I do not stand much of a chance against these dangers. If they attack, I will jump toward the formation.

That will happen. Only when I am lucky as last time.

Some of these plants are so powerful that they will have me before I could do anything else.

I could do nothing else than be prepared for these dangers. If I am unlucky, they will attack, and by luck, I will detect it. It will give me a small chance to survive.

I pushed those thoughts away and continued moving; I have already crossed half of the garden. There are many resources on the way, but I did not touch any of them.

My life is more important than any resource I would collect here.

Hun!

Another minute passed, and there were just a few steps of distance when I suddenly jumped.

I was right about jumping, as the moment I did. The vines burrowed into the ground had come at me. I have been tracking every dangerous plant with my soul sense and the moment; I sensed its movements; I jumped.

It had crossed the distance at an amazing speed, reaching halfway in a fraction of a second, before suddenly stopping in its tracks.

Thud!

Seeing that, I took a sigh of relief, before a smile appeared on my face.

The one I learned in my time here was that these plants had a strong sense of boundaries. They will not move further than that, which is wise in a place dangerous as this where the broken formations are everywhere.

Touching even a small broken formation could vaporize them in an instant.

I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down and looked ahead. The way ahead is dangerous, more dangerous than the garden.

In the garden, I have some chance of survival, here I do not. If a stray broken formation activates, it will set off a chain reaction that will not give me a chance to survive.

It is the same for the expanded space. If the formation somehow lost the energy, the entire space would collapse, taking me with it.

Still, despite all the danger, there is no choice. So, I took one last deep breath and walked ahead.

My steps were steady and cautious, but my heart was beating wildly. It is a dangerous walk. Every minute, I am walking around hundreds of broken formations; they are everywhere.

Finally, I reached the hall and stopped for a few seconds to wipe away sweat before resuming walking again.

Hun!

I had just taken a step, when suddenly a broken formation size of a hovercar came at me, like a knight. Activated all my strength and arched back, by a few inches fast as I could.

Sup!

Barely avoiding it, by a fingernail distance.

If it had hit me, it would have cut me apart, but it hit a huge formation, which absorbed it.

Seeing that, I couldn't help but take a sigh of relief. If it had been another formation, it might have started the chain reaction, and the hall would be the worse place for that.

As not only it is filled with a lot of broken formations, but it also had collapsed space on one side.

Which made it terrible for me.